The little one
by MoeM
Summary: After Kidd goes into labor at the fire house, Severide faces tough times
1. Chapter 1

Thus far it had been a relatively quiet shift. Squad and ambo had just made it back to the house after a call of a boy getting his head stuck in a railing. They had gotten the boy out in no-time; allowing them all to be back to the house right before dinner time.

As they walked in, they were surprised by the sight of Boden behind the stove.

"Hey, Chief! Since when do you cook?" Severide joked.

"I'm just showing all of you how real cooking should be done" the Chief chimed back. "But on a more serious note, lieutenant: you have a visitor in your office. I suggest you go there."

It seemed very strange to have a visitor at this hour, especially since it was a Saturday. Any work related visitor usually only come during work hours.

Walking up to his office, he was getting increasingly confused about his surprise guest. His office was just as he had left it before. The lights were out and his door was closed.

But, as he opened the door, his questions were soon answered and he did not mind at all what he saw. There she was lying in his bed with her back towards the door and her hand protectively over her now very pregnant belly.

He slowly sat down on the bed and stroked some of her hair behind her ear. "Stella, hey" he said softly.

"Hmmm, hey" She replied; her voice laden with sleep.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you here?".

"I couldn't sleep. The baby was keeping me up again."

He laughed. "And here, I was thinking that you were just missing me." He said as he laid down beside her and put his arm over her abdomen.

"Ha, yeah that happens when you got such an ego like you".

"Hey, watch out or I'll make that baby of ours have the biggest ego there is." He joked back, earning him a laugh from her.

Her laughter soon stopped though. She tensed up, gripped his hand, and started to squeeze it tightly.

"Are you okay, Stella?"

"Yeah, I think its just Braxton-Hicks contractions again"

Kelly had read up about this type of "false labor" after the last time that it happened, but the pain she was having now seemed worrisome to him.

"Let me get Brett to check on you." He said to her. "Just to be sure."

"No, it's fine. It will pass."

"Do it for me, please?"

"Okay, fine. But, don't make a big fuss about it, okay? Don't need the whole house to know."

"Of course!" He said as he placed a kiss on top of her head.

He rushed to the common area where everybody was enjoying the feast that Boden had prepared. He didn't bother to walk all the way over to the paramedic on the other side of the room. If Stella was in pain, he needed it to be resolved right away.

"Brett, I need you" Although now the whole house knew that something was up, he didn't care. She will forgive him later.

Hearing the worry in his voice, Brett soon followed the lieutenant to his office.

"What is wrong" she asked.

"It's Stella. I think she is having contractions."

"Hey, Stella. Can you tell me what is going on?"

"It just Braxton-Hicks. I'm fine."

"For how long have you had contractions now?"

"Like an hour" "Maybe more"

"Okay, Do you feel any pain?"

"Yeah. Mostly my lower abdomen, but also a bit in my back." she answered her. "But I think that is just because I have not been sleeping well."

"And have you started timing your contractions yet?"

"No, not really, but they haven't been that regular."

"Okay, let me just check your cervix."

"No, Brett, it's fine. I'm 36 weeks. It's just Braxton-hicks. I'm not in Labor."

"Stella, you know very well that it could be a possibility."

"I...No..." Stella said looking panic-stricken towards Kelly who had been standing right beside her the whole time.

"It's okay, Stella. Let her do it." He said reassuringly.

It didn't take the paramedic long to see what was going on.

"Okay, Stella. I'm getting you to the hospital, honey. You are in labor." She said. "I'm getting Foster and then we will load you onto the ambulance".


	2. Chapter 2

_*authors note: people had been asking for this, so let's go! Also, yes, i said happy story, but i guess that wasn't completely true._

* * *

The ride to the hospital was relatively smooth. Brett and Foster had dropped them off and before they knew it Stella was in a hospital bed. A bed in the emergency department that was, not the maternity ward. The maternity ward had been overcrowded and short-staffed when they arrived, so they had been placed at emergency instead. Stella didn't seem to mind. She knew the people there, so that was a calming thought in this otherwise stressful situation.

But, that didn't mean that Severide had stopping worrying. Ever since reaching the hospital, Stella seemed to get paler by the second. Not only that, she didn't really seem to respond all that well to him. She only had been giving him very short answers or she just nodded her head to whatever he was saying. And her breathing only seemed to get heavier and heavier

"Hey, Stella. Tell me how you're feeling? Don't try to be brave, okay? " He asked while softly stroking her hand.

"I...don't...know. Hard...to...breathe". She said between breaths.

"Sssh, it's okay. Let me get Will" He said after which he placed a kiss on her forehead and walked out of the room looking for the doctor.

"Hey Maggy, have you seen Will? It's not going all too well with Stella. She is having trouble breathing."

"He is with a patient now, Kelly. As soon as I have someone available, I'll send them to you."

"But Maggy..." he pleaded.

"I'm sorry; we are really short-staffed today. I'll have someone for you in just a couple of minutes."

"Yeah, okay" he let out a frustrated breath and walked back to the room.

But once he got back into the room, he immediately knew something was terribly wrong. Her breathing was very heavy now. She was unresponsive and before he knew it alarm bells started going off.

In an instant, the tiny hospital room started to flood with doctors and nurses, with doctor Hallstead being the first one to arrive.

"She is going into cardiac arrest. Get me the Defib and call doctor Bush, please". Will said with a raised voice. "We are going to have to do an Emergency C-section."

"Will, what's going on" Kelly tried to get his voice heard among the commotion.

"Lieutenant, I'm going to have to ask to you step out of the room."

"No, Will. Come on, let me be with her"

"Severide, I need you to wait in the waiting room, okay?" Doctor Hallstead said sternly as he worked on Stella. "April, can you please take him there" He continued.

"Yes, come on Kelly"

Defeated he led April guide him to the waiting room, tears pricking behind his eyes.

* * *

He didn't want to be in this waiting room. He needed to be with Stella. He needed to be with his son or daughter. Instead he had been in this silent waiting room for over an hour now. There hadn't been any updates. They hadn't even told him if he still had a girlfriend or child.

The rest of 51 had come in about 30 minutes ago, but he hadn't really talked to them yet. He hadn't been able to do that. This was just too overwhelming. The birth of this child should have been a happy day, not like this.

"I'm looking for a Lieutenant Severide" came the voice of an older nurse.

"Yes, that's me" Kelly shot up out of the chair he had been occupying for the last hour and a half.

"Okay, Lieutenant. We have your daughter in the NICU. She is doing relatively well considering the complications of her birth. However, your wife's condition is extremely critical at the moment. We are currently still working on her." The nurse paused, contemplating her next words. "I'm going to be honest in saying that there might come a time this evening when we are going to ask you to say goodbye to her. I'm sorry"

Kelly could feel the blood drain from his face. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't lose her.

"I know this is a difficult time" The nurse continued. "But for now let's focus on your daughter. I'll let you gather your thoughts and then a nurse will take you to your baby." And with that the nurse was gone.

He slumped back in the hard waiting room chair. The tears that he had been trying to suppress over the last hours where now slowly running over his face. He could not do this without her. Having a child, a little baby girl, without Stella by his side... She had been so happy about being pregnant. He had caught her numerous times softly talking to her belly about all the adventures they were going to go on once their little one was born. Now there might never be such time.

"Do you want someone to go with you" It was Casey who broke Severide's train of thought.

Kelly looked over to the captain with red eyes and managed to whisper a soft "yeah".

"Okay, let's go then. Let's meet your daughter". Casey led him over to a nurse who had been waiting patiently next to the door of the waiting room.


	3. Chapter 3

The white walls of the hospital seemed to be endless. They had turned so many corners that Severide had lost track of where they actually were. His mind kept going over the events of the day. The nurse guiding Severide and Casey had been updating them on the condition of the little baby girl. Severide caught some key terms like 'late preterm' and 'respiratory distress', but it was hard to keep up.

"How long will she have to stay in the NICU?" asked Casey, sensing that his friend needed time to process all the information.

"I can't give you a definite answer on that, but she has been doing really well. I don't expect it to be long." The young nurse answered. "Here we are"

They turned into a small room with multiple bassinets. The nurse walked them over to a bassinet with a tag saying "baby Kidd/Severide" on it.

"This is her" the nurse smiled.

Carefully the two men approached the little girl. In the bassinet was a small sleeping baby, a breathing tube had been placed in her little nose. Seeing his daughter for the first time, Kelly didn't know what to do or feel. He had dreamed of this moment so many times. He had dreamed about how he would be there right beside Stella when she would hold their child for the first time. Now, he just stood there hesitantly.

"Do you want to hold her?" The nurse asked.

"Uhm, yes, uhm, can I?" He replied unsure.

"Of course. If you wash your hands and sit in that chair, I will get her for you."

Finally having his daughter in his arms was the first time that a smile formed on Kelly's face since reaching the hospital. "Hey, baby" he whispered while softly caressing the little cheeks of the girl with his index finger.

"Do we have a name yet?" the nurse asked.

"Yes, but I want to wait for Stella first" Severide answered as the smile fell away from his face. The thought that the mother of his child was fighting for her life somewhere else in this hospital was too hard to grasp.

"Okay, no problem. We will do that later on. I'll leave the three of you alone for a bit." The nurse excused herself from the room.

"She is beautiful, isn't she?" Severide asked his friend.

"Yes, she really is" smirked Casey.

"I can't do this without her, Matt." It was the first time that Kelly actually had expressed his worry.

Casey was silent; not knowing what to answer his best friend.

"She is strong, Kelly." Casey knew he was just stating the obvious now, but it seemed better than nothing at the time. "She'll pull through, but you are never alone in this."

* * *

Severide and Casey had remained with the little girl for an hour or so at the NICU, before an unknown doctor entered the room.

"Good morning gentlemen, my name is Doctor Bush, which one of you is Mr. Severide"

"Yes, that's me"

"Okay, so Miss Kidd went into cardiac arrest earlier this night due to an amniotic fluid embolism, meaning that amniotic fluid entered your girlfriend's pulmonary circulation." The doctor paused to let the information sick in. "We have been able to stabilize her and she has been responding well to her treatment. She has been extremely lucky, but she is not out of the woods just yet. There could be neurological damage, but for now things are looking up."

Severide let out a shaky breath. "Thank you"

"Has someone come up to check your daughter yet?"

"No, not since we arrived, why?" answered Casey, confused of the sudden change of subject.

"Okay, I'll have someone check her out and then hopefully we can transfer her to your girlfriend's room, Mr. Severide".

"She is awake?" Severide asked hopeful.

"Not yet, but we expect her to wake up within a couple of hours".

"Okay, thank you."

"Do you hear that" He said to the girl in his arms. "Mommy is going to be better soon" Placing a kiss on her little forehead.

* * *

The doctor had said a couple of hours, but by now it had been almost four. In that time, Stella's and Kelly's daughter had been discharged from the NICU. Severide was gently rocking the little girl in his arms as he slowly paced through the hospital room. He was trying to occupy himself by whispering stories about him and Stella to the baby girl.

"you know, you pretty much have the best mom in the world, right? Although, sometimes she can be a little crazy. Especially when she was pregnant with you. She had me driving to get milkshakes in the middle of the night." He smiled at the memory. "When you get older, I'm going to take you to the first place your mom and I had milkshakes together. There is no better place to get them."

He had been so involved in the stories that he hadn't noticed that Stella was slowly starting to wake up.

A small moan came from the other end of the room. Severide's head shot up. She was coming too, finally. Carefully he placed his daughter back into her bassinet and quickly made his way over to Stella's bedside.

"Stella, can you open your eyes for me."

Another moan came.

"Please?" He said in a hoarse voice, cradling her head and holding on to her hand for dear life.

Slowly but surely she finally opened her eyes.

"Hey, Stella, you really scared me there." He whispered

"hmm what happened?" she whispered back.

Severide couldn't answer her right away. The emotions and his lack of sleep were getting to him. Tears were once again starting to roll down his face.

Stella reached up wipe away the tears. As she did so, her other hand instinctively reached for her abdomen, but her the large belly that she was expecting wasn't there anymore.

"The baby? Where is the baby?"She panicked.

"No, shhh. The baby is okay. She is okay" Kelly was finally able to answer after hearing the panic in Stella's voice.

"You went into cardiac arrest, Stella." He explained. "God, it was really close. I could have lost you both".

Seeing the pain on his face, Stella pulled Kelly in for a hug.

"She, huh? We have a daughter?" she whispered into his ear after a while.

"Yes, you want to see her?" Kelly said excitingly, coming out of her embrace.

He picked the little girl up, while Stella tried to make some extra space in the hospital bed. He carefully climbed onto the bed with his daughter in his arms and slowly handed the small child over to Stella.

"Hey there, beautiful" said Stella, while admiring her daughter. Kelly couldn't help the bright smile that appeared on his face. He finally had his little family together.

He put his one arm around Stella and the other on the baby girl. "She looks like you" he said.

"You know this means that I was right" Stella said teasingly.

"Yes, you were right. It's a girl. We have a daughter." He smiled while she curled more into him.


	4. Chapter 4

_We are happy to announce the birth of_

 _ **Olivia Leslie Severide**_

 _on the 4th of November 2020_

 _6 pounds, 2 ounces, 17 inches_

 _Love Stella and Kelly_

* * *

It was a sight that filled Stella's heart with an overwhelming feeling of joy, love, and amazement when she walked into the living room that early Wednesday morning. The room was still relatively dark with the only light coming from a small desk lamp beside the couch and the dim light of the rising sun. But on that couch was Kelly, curled up with their little girl in his arms. Softly rocking her back and forth.

"Hey" she smiled as she walked over to the couch. "Shouldn't you be going? Shift will start soon." She said softly.

"Yeah, I know." He sighed. "I just don't want to leave you two alone just yet."

Stella sat down on the couch beside them and laid her head on Kelly's shoulder. "Me neither"

"You will still come by the house today, right?" He asked hopeful.

"Of course, it's about time that she meets everyone."

"Okay" He replied, still not wanting to leave. "See you in a bit, baby" he whispered to his daughter. He carefully placed the girl into Stella's arms. "Be nice to your mother. Okay, Olly?" He said after placing a kiss on her forehead.

"You will let me know if there is anything wrong, right?" He asked Stella.

"Yes, I will. Be safe today" She answered him.

He nodded in response. "I love you" He told he her and placed a kiss on her lips.

"Love you too" she beamed back at him.

"Okay, bye". He gave the girl one last stroke on her little cheeks and walked out the door.

* * *

Kelly was torn between wanting to get a call so the time would fly by until Stella and Olivia would arrive or not getting a call so he was sure that he was here when they came. This crossword that he was doing wasn't helping much in getting his mind of it.

"Hey, Severide. When are we finally going to meet that little monster of yours?" Came the voice of Hermann as he barged into the common room after coming back from a call.

"Hey, no child of mine is a monster!" Said Stella as she casually drove a stroller into the room.

"Yeah, Hermann" Kelly said as he eagerly made his way over to his girlfriend and greeted her with a kiss. He then quickly shifted his attention to the girl sleeping in the stroller and picked her up, while trying not to wake her.

"So everyone, this is Olivia" Said Severide as he happily held up the girl for everybody to see as they gathered around.

"Ahw, look at you!" said Ritter who was first to reach the girl.

"That's one beautiful girl, brother" Cruz said.

"That's all Stella" He replied, winking to Stella.

"Wow, she has grown quick." Casey chimed in.

"Well, with the amount of milk that girl is drinking..." Severide said jokingly, earning him a slap from Stella.

"Can I hold her?" Ritter pleaded, looking at Stella en Kelly.

"Yes, just be careful" Stella said.

Ritter gratefully took the girl from Severide. "Hey, I heard you are growing up quickly, huh? He addressed the girl. "I was just wondering if you could maybe do it even faster. You see I don't want to be a candidate forever and I need someone to take over from me. What do you say?" He said in a baby voice, while rocking the girl.

"Nope, just for that you can give her back." Severide said. "She is not going to be a firefighter".

"I'll take her then." Mouch said. "That will scare her away from working here."

* * *

Stella and Kelly watched as Olivia was handed around. Standing cuddled together, they enjoyed the sight of their friends interacting with their daughter.

"So how are you doing, Kidd?" questioned Casey.

"Yeah, I'm getting there." Stella answered. "My body still needs to heal a bit, but it won't be too long before I can return to work."

"Is Severide stepping up, or do I need to have a talk with him" Hermann, who was now the one holding the girl, intervened their conversation.

"Hey, I'm standing right here." Severide piped up.

"No, he is actually doing really great. Couldn't do it with out him". She said while cuddling into Kelly's side smiling.

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Battalion 25. Structure fire, 16th and Wabash."

"Okay, duty calls. Let's go. We can see Olivia another time" Said Boden.

Hermann carefully handed the girl, who for some reason could sleep through the loud alarm bells, back to Stella. "That's one amazing girl you have there. The three of you make a beautiful family." He said on his way out of the common room.

"Thanks" smiled Stella.

"Thank you for coming." Severide still hadn't left Stella side.

"Promise me you'll be careful." She asked him.

"I will. I'll be back home soon" He have his girls one last kiss and ran out to the apron.

* * *

Author's note: I know there will be people that might not like the name, but in that case: just insert your own haha


End file.
